This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from my application COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH POWER MANAGEMENT FUNCTION AND CONTROL METHOD OF THE SAME filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Aug. 20, 1998 and there duly assigned Serial No. 33775/1998.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system, and more particularly to a power management control technique for a computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor technology has rapidly advanced over the last decade. This has led to the development of faster, more powerful semiconductor devices, which have resulted in faster and more sophisticated computer systems having greater capabilities and supporting more advanced peripheral devices. However, these sophisticated computer systems tend to consume greater amounts of power.
To reduce power consumption, a power-down technique is performed on selected hardware devices when the computer system has not been used for a predetermined period of time. Examples of the power-down techniques are to deactivate one or both of the horizontal/vertical synchronization signals transmitted to a display monitor, decrease the rotational frequency of a hard disk drive, and prompt a central processing unit (CPU) to enter into a system management mode (SMM).
An advanced power management (APM) system gradually reduces the power consumption of the computer system in proportion to the non-operating time of the computer system. An APM has been developed by the INTEL Co. and the MICROSOFT Co.
A portable computer includes a computer body, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel which is combined with a hinge of the computer body and shows display data, a keyboard combined with a top of the computer body, a touch pad used as a pointing device, a floppy disk drive, and a battery supplying power for operating the portable computer.
Designed to become small, light, and high-performance and to contain the battery, the portable computer can be conveniently portable and used anywhere. However, the capacity of the battery is restricted to limit the time that the computer can be operated by supplying the power from the battery. Therefore, the power consumption of the battery should be minimized while using the portable computer.
To minimize the power consumption of the battery, the portable computer should perform a power management function which is implemented by presetting it through a power management program. In the MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95 software, the power management program is executed in the control panel. In proportion to the non-operating time of the computer system, the power-down time of each device is set in the power management program. The power management program transmits the set time (i.e., powered down time) to a basic input/output system (BIOS), so that the BIOS controls the power-down of each device.
It is, however, complicated and difficult for beginners to set the power management through the foregoing steps. Since the power of the computer system cannot be efficiently managed, the power consumption may be left alone. Thus, the time that the computer system is operated by the battery is reduced to waste the battery power.
Without the efficient power management of a desktop computer, the amount of power consumption increases.
The following patents each discloses features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the power management control technique for a computer system of the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,798 to Uehara et al., entitled COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH FUNCTION FOR CONTROLLING SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND POWER SUPPLY STATUS DATA, U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,821 to Takikita, entitled PRINTING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF SAVING POWER OF THE SAME, U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,285 to Shimada, entitled BATTERY POWERED COMPUTER CAPABLE OF SWITCHING TO A SUSPEND MODE BASED ON THE CONNECTION STATUS OF AN EXTERNAL DEVICE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,299 to Nomura et al., entitled SELECTIVELY REMOVING POWER FROM MULTIPLE DISPLAY AREAS OF A DISPLAY UNIT.
The present invention overcomes the above noted drawbacks by providing a computer system which can easily set a power management mode for gradually reducing the power consumption of a computer in proportion to the non-operating time of a computer system.
According to the present invention, a computer system includes a plurality of hardware devices, a power mode selector, disposed on the computer system, for selecting one of a plurality of predetermined power management modes, and a system power manager for managing the computer system power in response to the selection of the computer management mode.
In the preferred embodiment, the power mode selector is one of a touch pad, a rotary switch, and a slide bar.
According to the present invention, the present invention tests whether the power mode selector has been moved. If the power mode selector has been moved, predetermined menus for selecting one of power management modes are altered and displayed in accordance with a moving direction of the power mode selector. If selection of the power management mode is finished, a selected mode is set as a power management mode. As a result, a user can set the power management mode of a computer system merely by moving a movable power mode selector.
In the preferred embodiment, if the power mode selector is not moved over a predetermined period of time or a specific key of a keyboard has not been pressed over a predetermined period of time, the setting of the power management mode is finished.